India PC Market Share jumps 7.7%, Lenovo Tops!

Faster growth in semi-urban India is driving growth in the PC Market in India as it expanded by 7.7% in Q1 2012 over Q4 2012. Even as compared to the first quarter of 2011, shipments of PCs grew 3.5%. In the period January-March 2012, 26.3 lakh PCs were shipped, according to a press release by IDC.

As the PC market in India is revived by a boost in commercial as well as consumer spending, Lenovo emerged with top market share for the first time. Until now Dell had a command over the market share but with 15.8% of total shipments, Chinese manufacturer Lenovo has nudged past Dell.

In Q4 2011, Dell had the highest market share with 17.6% of total shipped PCs in India. In Q1 2011, Dell lost 2.6% and fell to 15%. Lenovo was second and 10% and HP trailed third. In Q1 2012, Dell had a 14.9% market share. One of the fundamental drivers of this nearly 5.8% surge for Lenovo as compared to Q4 2011 is the ELCOT deal. At a 15.8% against total shipments of 26.3 lakh, Lenovo alone would have shipped about 4.2 lakh PCs in India.

Lenovo recently secured the ELCOT deal with the Tamil Nadu government to supply laptops in schools. Besides the TN government, many other states are on their way to incorporate and increase existing IT facilities and infrastructure. If the trend continues and governments like UP and Punjab rise up to election promises, we may very well witness a further growth in the PC market in India.

Of the total PCs shipped, consumer segment grew about 19.6% in Q1 2012. Adwaita Govind Menon, Associate Research Director, IDC said "Consumer-led sales are a healthy sign" However not everyone in the industry is delighted with these numbers. Amar Babu, MD Lenovo told ET "Comparatively, emerging markets are growing 15-16%..Going by the low PC penetration level, India should grow much faster and consumer buying needs to go up"

State wise PC penetration

A recent study, also by IDC pointed out that South India in its entirety was the highest consumer in the Indian PC market. But state wise, Maharashtra emerged as the biggest consumer as it accounted for nearly 17.4% share of total PCs shipped in India.

Second highest was Delhi at 11.5% followed by 10.6% for Karnataka. "South India typically boasts a few big names in the enterprise market, who continue to be top spenders in IT products. Further, the region continues to be a stronghold for non-branded PC market in India" said Kiran Kumar, Sr. Analyst at IDC.

While growth numbers are welcome, figures show that consumer sentiment is shifting towards portable PCs. Even semi-urban India is waking up to compact devices like laptops, notebooks, tablets and other mobile devices.

The Lenovo All-in-One desktop has been popular with Indian consumers because of its low price. But it will be interesting to see how the Chinese manufacturer holds up against other market leaders in laptops, tablets and other portable devices in the future.